Leading visitors around a network of pipes and equipment that weave around the back of Painesville Township’s Service Department garage, township Service Director Bill Thompson recently demonstrated a new brine maker that will be used in winter road treatment efforts. The township will begin using the new machine this year after purchasing it with the help of an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency grant. Township officials, Ohio EPA representatives and others gathered to learn more about the new machine on Oct. 16. “We’re thrilled with the state of Ohio, the EPA with giving us the grant to put towards the purchase,” said Painesville Township Trustee Chuck Hillier. “It’s going to allow us to improve efficiency, lower the usage of salt, save us money ultimately in the long term.” The service department can create brine by dumping salt into the brine maker’s large metal hopper. Thompson said that the service department can make up to 4,000 gallons of brine an hour, which can be stored in a 10,000-gallon storage tank until the township needs to fill its snowplows. He previously said that the township will save costs by making the brine instead of purchasing it, but added that it should provide residents with “the same service as in past years.” Prewetting with a brine gets salt to stick to the ground and reduces salt usage, said Ohio EPA Assistant Policy Director Jessica Langdon. It also helps protect waterways like the Grand River and Lake Erie from chloride introduced by salt runoff. “Once it’s in, it’s relatively hard to get out,” Langdon said of the chloride. “It can hurt infrastructure. So it can make pipes leach, it can hurt treatment plants, whether that’s wastewater or drinking water. Again, just like corrosion. Same thing with general infrastructure, such as your bridges and your roads. “So again, by helping, doing some prewetting, things like that, that prevents that and makes that salt actually stick and prevents it from actually getting into the waterways,” she added. Painesville Township Service Director Bill Thompson shows the township's new 10,000 gallon brine storage tank at an Oct. 16 event. Behind it, a blue container holds the beet juice that is also used in the township's winter road treatment. (Bryson Durst -- The News-Herald)Painesville Township Service Director Bill Thompson demonstrates the controls for the township's new brine maker at an Oct. 16 event. (Bryson Durst -- The News-Herald)A snow plow is parked next to the brine fill station at Painesville Township's Service Department garage on Oct. 16. (Bryson Durst -- The News-Herald)Show Caption1 of 3Painesville Township Service Director Bill Thompson shows the township's new 10,000 gallon brine storage tank at an Oct. 16 event. Behind it, a blue container holds the beet juice that is also used in the township's winter road treatment. (Bryson Durst -- The News-Herald)Expand The brine maker cost the township $122,000, Thompson previously said. The Ohio EPA provided Painesville Township with an H2Ohio Rivers Chloride Reduction Grant for $75,000, which was the maximum amount awarded under the program. “They had the manpower already staff-trained, wanting to do prewetting, wanting to use brine,” Langdon said. “All of their trucks are already calibrated to use it. And then one of the biggest things that I think was unique about this application is they really talked about their ties to – they’re in the watershed for Grand River, as well as Lake Erie is a quarter-mile, half a mile away. “And again, that buy-in to make sure that chloride is not getting into our waterways is so important, and so, really unique application and a really great story to tell,” she added. Thompson credited township Assistant Service Director John Kotrlik for working with the Ohio EPA and manufacturer Henderson Products on the project. “We’re very proud of our employees,” Hillier said. “They wrote this grant, it was their idea, they presented it to us, they got us on the buy-in, and ultimately, we got approved for it, and speaking with the representative with the EPA, this was a very competitive grant statewide.” The service department’s website states that it clears snow from 215 roads in Painesville Township, 99 percent of which serve residential areas. Other roads in the township are maintained by the Ohio Department of Transportation or Lake County Engineer’s Office, and a full list of those roads can be found at painesvilletwp.com/service-department.